Son'a
The Son'a were a narcissistic and materialistic humanoid race descended from the Ba'ku. They left the idyllic Ba'ku home planet in the Briar Patch during the 2270s after a failed attempt to take over Ba'ku society. They had rebelled against the Ba'ku philosophy of rejecting high technology. In 2325, they subjugated the Tarlac and the Ellora species to serve as indentured servants and soldiers. ( ) The Son'a equipped their vessels with unpredictable isolytic subspace weapons, in defiance of the Second Khitomer Accord.( ) They also manufactured large quantities of the Dominion narcotic ketracel-white in the Son'a colonies in the outlying areas near Cardassia and the Bajoran wormhole. One of their white storage facilities was located at their outpost at Devos II. ( ) Without the regenerative effects of the Ba'ku homeworld's metaphasic radiation, the Son'a became desperate in their efforts to prolong their lives by any possible means, including genetic manipulation and surgical techniques. The Son'a would make regular visits to facilities where their skin was stretched tight, and accumulated toxins were purged from their bodies. Nevertheless, due to the amount of bacteria entering their system, in the 2370s many Son'a (including Ru'afo himself) were suffering from fatal diseases and nearing death. It was also revealed that it would take at least ten years of normal exposure to the metaphasic radiation to begin to reverse their condition. In 2375, a group of Son'a led by Ahdar Ru'afo attempted to access the metaphasic particles within the rings of the Ba'ku planet, now located within Federation space. To do so, they entered an alliance with Starfleet Admiral Matthew Dougherty, who convinced the Federation Council to approve the scheme. The Son'a had developed a metaphasic collector to harvest the particles, but it came with the secondary effect of rendering the planet uninhabitable. They agreed to follow Starfleet procedure and relocate the existing Ba'ku population beforehand, using a hidden Federation holoship. The plan began to unravel when Lieutenant Commander Data from the uncovered the holo-ship and was shot by a Son'a soldier. This caused him to malfunction and the Enterprise was sent to retrieve him. When the Enterprise arrived, they discovered the true nature of the Son'a's operations, the crew rejecting Dougherty's claims that the relocation of the small number of Ba'ku on the planet was worth it compared to the billions who would be helped by the subsequent advances in medical technology as they felt that the moral cost that would be paid in the destruction of the Ba'ku culture was too great. Captain Jean-Luc Picard threatened to expose this to the Federation, by sending Commander William T. Riker and the Enterprise to the edge of the Briar Patch to contact the Federation Council, while he and a number of his officers took the captain's yacht to the surface to help the Ba'ku. In response, Ru'afo sent Son'a warships to intercept the Enterprise and ordered the Ba'ku to be removed by force, though his efforts were impeded by the Enterprise crew. Unwilling to wait any longer, Ru'afo decided to commence with the next stage of the operation, without relocating the remaining Ba'ku. When Dougherty objected to this, Ru'afo killed him and deployed the metaphasic collector. Fortunately, Picard was able to stop its activation and trigger the auto-destruct sequence, with help from Ru'afo's second-in-command Gallatin. Soon the Federation Council withdrew their support for the project, with new information from the Enterprise. Some of the Son'a elected to return to the Ba'ku. ( ) During the later days of the Dominion War, Weyoun diverted a number of Dominion warships to the Son'a outpost on Devos II. They were diverted, rather than sent to pursue the , which was searching for survivors from the , in order to help protect the new ketracel-white facility built there, as the Dominion was aware that the Federation had discovered its existence. Damar questioned this, as he felt the Son'a should be able to protect it themselves. ( ) Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway later joked with Jean-Luc Picard about his encounter with the Son'a, telling him he always got the easy assignments. ( ) People *Ru'afo *Gallatin * List of unnamed Son'a Appendix Background information Among the items sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay was an unused special effects Son'a face make-up mask and a Son'a energy pistol holster and harness. de:Son'a fr:Son'a nl:Son'a Category:Groups